Welcoming the Unknown
by Marked Goddess
Summary: Set after 6th year, Harry is abused over the summer and goes through an unknown creature inheritance. for the remainder of the summer he must learn to cope with his new abilities all while trying to figure out Draco's new fascination with him. will be HP/DM with other slash pairings to be determined. dont like dont read. will have mature content. R&R first story creature!fic
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled late in the afternoon over the small town of Surrey, England on July 30th. This unexpected summer storm sent people scurrying for cover while shooting curious and unnerved glances at the sky. At number 4 Privet Drive, there stood a lone figure staring out a second story window with a look of dark amusement on his face as he watched residents frantically trying to rush inside before the ominous black rainclouds above released their torrential downpour.

As the slight young man turned at the sound of a cat-flap the light glanced off his glasses, illuminating the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Harry Potter walked across his small room and picked up a bowl of thin soup and a meager serving of bread. He set aside the bread for Hedwig, his snowy white owl, and commenced to drink the barely luke warm soup.

_Better than yesterday, _he thought to himself_, at least it's slightly warm this time._

Once he was done eating, he pushed the bowl back through the cat-flap and went back to staring out of the window. He soon became lost in thought while watching the first few raindrops slide down the glass.

As he fell deeper into thought, he began to trace seemingly random patterns on the glass with a skeletal like finger. In fact, he was barely recognizable. His face was so thin that his cheekbones looked razor sharp. His hands were skin and bone, and his spine was visible through his thin oversized t-shirt. It didn't help that Harry barely stood 165cm, making him one of the shortest people in his year, including the girls. Harry blamed his small size and stature on three people: his aunt, uncle, and cousin.

Ever since they had picked him up from the Hogwarts Express they had been deeply disturbed by his strong, dark aura as well as his complete and utter silence.

At first, Uncle Vernon tried to beat this new freakishness out of him, but Harry never screamed or made any other sounds. Then Vernon worked Harry till he could barely move, but still Harry didn't make a sound of complaint. Finally Vernon had had enough and locked Harry in Dudley's second bedroom like the summer before second year. Vernon also told Petunia to only feed the boy when she felt like it.

This led to Harry only being fed every other day, or if there were leftovers, which was rare.

A sudden surge of magical energy accompanied by a flash of lightning and the booming crash of thunder jolted Harry from his dazed state of reverie. Looking around blinking, Harry noticed that his window was glowing faintly. When he looked closer, he realized that the faint light was coming from sigils and runes that he had traced on the glass. Harry was transfixed by the unusual symbols, and didn't know why.

The faint screech of an owl was the only warning that Harry received before Hedwig came swooping into view followed by half a dozen dark shapes. Harry quickly threw open the window, the glowing sigils forgotten, and stepped aside to allow the small flock of owls entrance to his room. After they all found perches, Harry turned toward Hedwig with a smile of welcome, which turned to a silent chuckle of amusement when he saw the regal midnight black owl perched next to her shooting glares at all the other owls.

Shaking his head, Harry went about relieving the owls of their burdens, deciding to end with the majestic black one.

As he unburdened each owl of its letter or package, it hooted once in farewell and flew out of the still open and glowing window. All of them, that is, except the black one.

After Harry was done, he glanced at the clock to see the glowing numbers spelling out 11:45.

_Only 15 more minutes till I'm 17, _he thought.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Harry turned to opening the pile of birthday presents and cards.

Mrs. Weasley had sent Harry the usual assortment of baked goods along with a scarlet scarf with little golden snitches flying around on it. The scarf was set aside for later use, after it was checked for curses of course, but the cookies and cake went straight into the trash can after the smell of chocolate had reached his nose. Ever since the beginning of summer, he became nauseous at the slightest hint of sweets and sugar. That and he didn't trust the Weasleys to not spike the food that they sent him with potions.

Along with the package came a letter:

_Hello Harry Dear, _

_ We hope you are having a nice birthday and pleasant summer with your relatives. Arthur sends his regards, as does the rest of the family. And please respond to Ron and Hermione, it isn't polite to ignore your friends. They only want what is best for you, like the rest of us. See you at the Hogwarts Express Dear._

_ Molly Weasley_

Rolling his eyes, Harry tossed the letter into the garbage after the sweets.

Next, Harry opened up Fred and George's gift, the latest prototypes from their joke shop, which were set aside for future use. Hermione's gift was a magical history book that was tossed to the side, and an unopened letter that was added to the pile of previously unread missives. With a sarcastic/sardonic smile, Harry opened Ron's gift which was a stack of Quidditch magazines. His attached letter was also added to the growing pile. Harry didn't even bother opening Ginny's present, already knowing that it held some sort of love spell or potion. He also shredded her letter directly into the trashcan causing Hedwig and her guest to hoot in amusement. Harry wasn't in the mood to read her obsessive confessions of undying love.

Now scowling, Harry turned to inspect the last of his 'gifts'. He promptly tossed the letter from Dumbledore into the trashcan before the compulsion spells could start to take affect. After that Harry opened Hagrid's package and with a sad smile placed it into the trashcan as well. His stomach really couldn't handle rockcakes either. Finally, only one letter remained, the one brought by the unknown owl.

Very carefully, Harry picked up the envelope of expensive parchment. On the front his name was written in an elegant cursive. Turning it over Harry took notice of the wax seal. He brought it closer and felt a jolt of recognition, even though he couldn't remember where he had ever seen it before.

With a shaking hand, Harry carefully removed the seal without breaking it. Setting the wax aside with one last confused look, Harry opened the envelope and withdrew the heavy parchment. As he unfolded the letter his clock beeped once signaling midnight. With his eyes still racing across the letter, Harry failed to notice the dark green, almost black, light that was emanating and pulsating around him. As he reached the end of the letter, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head not believing what he had just read.

Taking a deep breath, Harry started reading the letter again very slowly.

_Dearest Harry,_

_ I know that this may be a shock, especially since Erebus was the one to deliver this letter, but it is of the utmost importance. First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the way that you have been treated in the past. I'm also sorry that no one believes you about your home-life. I should have been there for you but I wasn't and I regret every minute of my stupidity. It is also to my further regret to have to write this letter. If you are truly reading this then that means that your dormant heritage is coming to life after generations of inactivity. I regret that I have not named your true heritage in this letter, but I fear that someone might try to intercept it during these troubling times. But I promise that all will be revealed to you in due time. I must also warn you to be careful who you trust dear one. Follow your new instincts that have started developing, and beware of those with false intent and ill feeling._

_ All My Love…_

Before Harry could finish reading the letter for the second time, an invisible force started pushing in on him. The sudden increase in pressure around his chest made Harry gasp in pain. The pressure kept increasing on him causing shortness of breath and for him to start seeing black spots. As Harry kept panting for breath the light started pulsating faster and faster. Just when he thought that he couldn't take it anymore, time seemed to freeze. Everything stood still until Erebus and Hedwig let out identical shrieks and flew to Harry's shoulders. As they landed, the rising pressure reached its peak. At the climax, Harry's body couldn't take the pressure anymore and he fainted. Right before he collapsed on the ground, there was a giant silent explosion of power. The waves that came rolling off of the explosion disintegrated all magical workings within a five mile radius. People started randomly appearing. Oddities to muggles, things they thought were myths, were suddenly wandering the streets like it was any other day. All of the spells and so called blood wards on the Dursley's house also disappeared.

Hundreds of miles away in Scotland, the warning bells from alarm spells work the aged professor Dumbledore from his restful sleep unceremoniously. Moving with purpose, Dumbledore quickly identified the source of the noise as being from Harry's relative's house. He swiftly moved to the fire place to floo call as many members from the Order of the Phoenix that he thought he could trust.

As he got ahold of each person he told them to meet him at Harry's house because there was an emergency. Finally Dumbledore flooed to Arabella Figg's house to join the rescue party he had assembled. This particular rescue party included Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Nymphodora Tonks, and Remus Lupin.

Remus and Severus were the first ones to reach the door after Dumbledore joined the group. After they blasted the door in, Severus followed Remus and his heightened sense of smell directly to Harry's bedroom.

When they got there they saw all of the locks on the door, like there was some sort of an animal being kept in the room instead of a teenage boy.

"Who would do something like this?", whispered Remus to himself, not knowing the worst was still yet to come.

Severus lifted his wand with a stony look on his face. With a whispered alohamora, he opened the door carefully, so as not to scare Harry…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Sigh….still not mine…

A/N: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who added me to their favorites and alerts! You guys are awesome and I can't believe it lol. You guys rock. PLEASE READ THE A/N AT THE BOTTOM!

Chapter 2

Draco Malfoy jerked awake in the early hours of the morning and sat straight up in bed covered in a cold sweat. Not knowing what was happening, he sent out his senses trying to figure out what caused his distress. Slowly getting up out of bed Draco padded over to his floor to ceiling windows and looked toward where the magical surge came from. Suddenly a brilliant smile could be seen creeping across his chiseled face.

"Finally", Draco whispered to himself, "he has awakened. It is almost time for all of our plans to come to life. Soon, my darling, soon we shall be together and everything shall be explained to you."

Turning from the window, Draco walked towards his wardrobe to change from his black silk pajama pants into something a little bit more appropriate for being in mixed company during daylight time. Staring into his impressive wardrobe of clothes, Draco decided on something that was formal enough to be seen in public with, but casual and comfortable to be with his family in a casual setting. Finally deciding on black robes with Slytherin green embroidery to promote health and protection, he changed and turned to check his appearance in the full length mirror.

Satisfied with the way he looked, Draco turned and left his room in search of his parents to discuss what was to come. Despite it being the middle of the night still, Draco knew that he could find his parents in the family's informal sitting room because they would have felt the magical shock wave like he did.

When he got there his father was pacing in front of the fire place muttering to himself about possibilities, solutions, and the dark lord, while his mother was seated primly on a couch ordering refreshments for them all from a house elf. As Draco stepped into to the sitting room, his father turned to meet his eye. When Draco nodded, a look of relief passed over Lucius' face and he turned to continue his pacing and mumbling. Shaking his head, Draco turned to greet his mother with a kiss to the cheek and a small smile before he turned to take a seat in a centrally located armchair between the couch and fireplace, and with a view of a window.

Getting lost in his own thoughts while staring out onto the manor grounds, Draco wasn't expecting the house elf to pop into the room with a tray of tea, coffee, and finger foods, which caused him to jump in surprise. Looking around, he was glad to notice that neither of his parents had noticed his slip of Malfoy decorum.

Once drinks had been passed around and Lucius had taken his seat next to Narcissa, the three Malfoys turned their attention to discussing the newest set of circumstances that needed addressed. Since they knew what the magical surge meant from earlier they were able to prepare and decide on how to approach the situation in reference to both the dark Lord and the rest of the Wizarding World.

Draco was the first to break the silence.

"It's him. I know it is. I am sorry Father, I know you were hoping that it would be female, but it is not so. It is Harry. It has always been Harry and it will always be Harry. I think I have always known it, even when we were first years and always trying to outdo the other. I hope that you are not too disappointed. And you do know that it is still possible to carry on the Malfoy name despite this turn of fate. The only thing that I worry about is how our lord will react to this news. Do you have a plan Father?"

Lucius sighed audibly before he answered, "I knew that could have happened and I am not upset my son, so worry not. And as for the Dark Lord, I think that he has known as well. A few months back he changed his orders to be capture only, and that no harm was to come to the boy. Now, all we must do is prepare to the best of our abilities, and invite our Lord to stay here soon so that everyone is in one place until a meeting can be set up. The only problem now is locating young Harry."

"If my inference is correct, then with that level of power exuded during his transformation he might be of the ruling class, or even the ruling family. If that is the case then his instincts will have sent him to the palace or the nearest protected location coveted by our people. He is safe for now, and we will find him soon. If he doesn't find us first that is," stated Narcissa confidently.

Getting lost in thought again, Draco slowly sipped his tea, trying to figure out how to move forward with finding Harry. He needed to or he would start to go crazy with inactivity.

Noticing the look in her son's eye, Narcissa turned to her husband and whispered "maybe we need to contact Severus at a decent hour and ask him to come and keep Draco distracted and to help Draco to learn what he needs to know for when we do find Harry. He also might be able to help."

Nodding his agreement, Lucius summoned a house elf to request parchment, ink, and one of the family owls. When the items that he requested arrived, he started writing the letter of request to Severus telling him the situation, but leaving out all names for safety's sake. When it was finished, Lucius sealed it, attached it to the patiently waiting owl with instructions to wait to deliver it until Severus had woken up for the day.

With the owl flapping away into the darkness, the Malfoy family turned to each other to talk about nothing until they could put their plans into motion.

Severus Snape, potions master of Hogwarts and Voldemort's spy, had barely stepped into his house after a long day and even longer night when he turned to see a Malfoy owl pecking at his window. Curious to see the creature at such an ungodly hour, Severus hurried to relieve the owl of its burden with a treat for its hard work. Once the owl had left the house and the window was shut against the slight chill of the night did Severus open the letter addressed to him.

After reading its contents, Severus sat down in shock unable to believe the likelihood of the situations he found himself in the middle of, not to mention the strange situations and circumstances that he found himself in the middle of due to the two boys who he cared about whether they knew it or not.

Groaning as he stood, Severus commenced to call his house elf and order a cup of tea as he made his way to his study to write a reply to his oldest and dearest friends stating that he would arrive in the late morning or early afternoon and that he had news for them as well. After the abrupt reply had been sent, Severus stumbled to his bedroom to try and get at least a couple hours of sleep so as to be able to function the following day.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A/N: to all those wonderful readers out there, I want to try something a little different with this story. I have the idea and what I want to do with it and where I want it to go in my head, but I want this to be kind of interactive with my readers. So here goes my crazy idea. I will ask a question and you all can make the decision on what direction this story might take by voting through PMs and reviews. And I don't mean simple things. I mean things like should Harry or Draco be the submissive? Should there be more than two people to the mateship of H&D? if so who should also be involved? Should old Voldy be a father figure? And also remember that this will be a creature fic, that there is weasly, mione, and dumbles bashing. And I am leaning towards mpreg, sorry. I am also trying to decide if the twins, bill and Charlie should be with Harry and against their family or not. So there you have it people. You decide I write. Let the voting begin!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Sigh…..Don't own anything….still

Chapter 3

As the sun started to rise over the horizon, the landscape started to come alive. The light started to creep along the ground towards the city nestled in the middle of the valley. Overlooking the splendid city from on top of a cliff in the center of the town was an imposing and magnificent palace. As the light started to glide over windowsills and into rooms all over the kingdom's capital, the city's workers and protectors started to rouse themselves from the depths of sleep. As the sun kept getting closer and closer to the palace and the mansions that surrounded it, yawns of exhaustion that usually signaled the end of the day started to spread like wildfire.

Buried deep inside the palace center was a room warded for protection, and guarded by the royal guard, meant only for the royalty that ruled this hidden city. Behind the intimidating beings, layers of magic strong enough to cause ripples, and heavy doors made from some unknown beautifully colored wood lay a bedroom that had been abandoned for years. This room was meant for a prince of the realm, but since that unfortunate event that had happened almost fifteen years ago, the room had not been used. The protections had been set up in loving memory of the missing grandchild, and heir, of the ruling couple.

But those wards had been disturbed on the one night a year that the Their Majesties were allowed to sleep. The change in the magic that surrounded the room caused them to jerk awake and rush to the one room in the castle that they never visited due to the sadness that surrounded it. When they reached the hallway that they were rushing for, the guards snapped to attention and bowed to the passing rulers as they moved towards the door and its wall of magick. With a quick chopping motion, the wards dropped like they had never existed, releasing the oppressive feeling that hung over the entire hallway.

Taking a deep breath and holding hands, the monarchs threw open the doors and stepped inside holding their breaths and expecting the worse.

With twin gasps of shock, they moved towards the bed that was occupied but someone who they thought could resemble their deceased child and their spouse.

Harry didn't know what was happening to him. He felt like he was floating in nothingness, but for some reason, he wasn't scared or worried.

_Maybe this is what death is like…_he thought to himself, confused about the phantom feelings that were coming across his system.

The feeling felt like phantom pain, but in a good way, like when something is healing, or you give your muscles a decent work out. With that realization, Harry figured that he must be dreaming or something. The twinges that were plaguing him felt almost like residual magick to his new enhanced senses that he had noticed developing this past summer. Harry could also tell that he was in a safe, warm, and very comfortable place, unlike anything that he was used to.

Harry could also sense that the sun was about to rise and knew that he needed to stay asleep so that he could be protected like he was supposed to be, like he was meant to be.

Suddenly sensing a presence to his side he attempted to turn towards it, like there was a magnet attached to him. He felt himself start to whimper because he couldn't move closer to the safety and serenity that was so close yet so far from him. Harry heard hurried footsteps and then a shushing sound and a hand on his sweating forehead. When he felt the contact, a sigh of relief went through him and he relaxed back into whatever he was laying on. After that, the blackness started to close in around him.

The unmistakable sound of an owl beak on a window is what woke up Severus Snape from his unsatisfying sleep. Grumbling to himself, Severus stumbled to the window and threw it open glaring death upon the ruddy bird.

Cursing to when he realized who the letter was from, Severus quickly called for his house-elf again, this time asking for the strongest cup of coffee possible.

This letter had been sent from the rulers of his hidden race stating that someone had appeared in the sealed bedroom, and had reacted positively to their touches. Being one of the heads of a noble family within the realm, he knew what this meant.

It meant that the lost heir had been found, and that he was probably Draco's mate due to the fact that Draco felt the awakening magick on the day the heir had appeared.

And Severus knew who it was…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A/N: Ok everyone…first off I owe all of you a huge apology…school started a couple of weeks ago and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Lol. Also, I just started a new job that is also going to be taking up a lot of my time. I will try to update as often as possible, but school work comes first sadly.

I also have the current standings of the last vote, and a new question or two for you all :)

Draco dom/Harry sub- 9

Harry dom/Draco sub -2

Voldy father-2

Sev father- 1

Good older weasleys-9

Threesome HxDx?-1

Annnnd the next questions.

Who should Sev be with?

Should Harry's grandparents be male/male, female/female, or male/female?

What are some of your other pairing choices?

And finally, I will continue taking votes on chapter 2's questions until chapter 4 is posted. These new questions are sadly only till chapter 4 as well, but I can post an interim note thing about the standings before chapter 4 is finished being written and posted. And please answer the questions. Thanks guys!


End file.
